Brian Lohnes
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 (engine revving)
00:02 - Hello everybody, and welcome to the first ever episode
00:09 of the Hot Rod Pod, where it all began by Motor Trend.
00:12 I am Brian Lones, you're gonna meet from such films
00:14 as the NHRA on Fox, Drag Week, and other sundry things
00:19 I've done with guys like Fryburger, and this man.
00:21 - John McGann.
00:22 - Editor of Hot Rod, John McGann.
00:24 - John McGann from Hot Rod Magazine,
00:25 and it's great to be here with you, Brian.
00:28 - Yeah, this is gonna be an awesome series.
00:29 So basically what the Hot Rod Pod, where it all began is,
00:32 is gonna be an exploration of some of the biggest names
00:35 in the industry of the aftermarket,
00:36 whether we're talking about car builders, drag racers,
00:40 engine builders, just big time names,
00:43 and we're gonna do this in a very conversational format.
00:47 - It's something we should have been doing
00:48 a long time ago, isn't it?
00:49 But I'm really excited about this.
00:51 We get to get a big cast of characters in,
00:55 and talk about the industry,
00:57 all kinds of things, automotive, motorsports,
01:01 manufacturing, and it's exciting.
01:03 - And it's not just a typical thing.
01:04 We're gonna learn about these people's lives,
01:06 their backstories, embarrassing stories,
01:08 the fun things that kind of made them what they are
01:10 and who they are today,
01:11 and really they have subjected themselves
01:13 to anything we've asked them.
01:14 So that's what has made this fun,
01:17 and we'll continue to make this fun.
01:18 Now the first set of episodes you're gonna see
01:20 of this series were made at the SEMA show in 2023,
01:24 and the very first episode that we have for you today
01:26 is with the Ring Brothers.
01:27 And this was, to me, John, so much fun
01:30 because we've all known the Ring Brothers.
01:33 We've kind of known who they are,
01:34 but we always see them in a professional setting
01:37 where they have to be kind of locked down and professional.
01:39 Not to say that they're not professional here,
01:41 but they are definitely not locked down.
01:43 - Absolutely not what I expected at all.
01:46 You look at their cars, you kind of think like,
01:48 well, they're designy, they're very highfalutin,
01:53 and absolutely the opposite of highfalutin.
01:57 - Super down to earth, the story where the one brother
02:00 sideswiped the other guy's car?
02:01 - Yes, between that, and you'll find out
02:03 that one of these brothers, when they were a kid,
02:05 had a very interesting habit that would occur
02:07 when they were running down a football field,
02:08 which would later become hidden in the name
02:11 of a speedy lube oil change place that they developed.
02:15 - That's correct.
02:15 - Great life stories here, great history.
02:17 David Freiberger is also a co-host of this episode,
02:20 as you'll see him in a couple others.
02:21 But without further ado, welcome to the Hot Rod Pod,
02:24 where it all began.
02:25 We're kicking it off with the Ring Brothers.
02:27 We're kicking it off at SEMA right now.
02:29 We are here where it all began, of course,
02:30 at the SEMA show.
02:32 We are joined by Mike and Jim Ring,
02:33 along with the illustrious co-host,
02:35 David Freiberger and John McGann.
02:37 You two guys have been cruising the show
02:39 the last couple of days, so before we get to our guests,
02:41 what has caught your eye, what's got your attention?
02:43 What's stood out?
02:44 - We were talking about earth tones.
02:45 - Earth tones.
02:47 - Bronze wheels.
02:48 - Yes.
02:49 - That seems to be a thing this year.
02:50 - Red interiors as well.
02:51 - Yeah, and burgundy, yeah, I've seen a lot of that.
02:54 This morning for me, I guess, was a flashback
02:56 to my earliest years here at the SEMA show,
02:58 where I attended, as did you, the NHRA Breakfast.
03:01 - Yes.
03:02 - And I was thinking about how I think that
03:04 it predates my attendance of SEMA, starting in about 1987.
03:08 I don't know when it began.
03:09 - Okay.
03:10 - But I remember the years of Wally Park
03:11 standing up there nervously with John Force at the podium.
03:15 And so that was a good time, which you obviously host,
03:18 Brian, did a great job this morning.
03:19 - Yeah, it was a good time.
03:20 We had four crew chiefs who went out to drive,
03:22 or drivers who wanted to be crew chiefs,
03:23 telling some good old war stories,
03:25 and just taking a glimpse back into their lives and careers,
03:28 which is always a fun thing to do.
03:31 So, with Jim and Mike Ring here,
03:33 obviously we're gonna be talking hot rodding,
03:34 design, the SEMA show, kind of how your careers have evolved,
03:39 and where it all began is the theme.
03:41 So, it all began for you guys simply in 1994-ish, right?
03:45 - Yeah, well--
03:46 - I might have been before that, but.
03:48 - That's when we became, you know,
03:50 where we came together as a business,
03:52 but it wasn't even Ring Brothers then, you know.
03:54 - You run a collision shop, don't you?
03:56 - We do.
03:57 - Even still.
03:58 - Still today, yeah.
03:59 A small one, it's just enough to keep us,
04:02 you know, a lot of times hot rod shops
04:04 don't get to see the reps,
04:05 or a lot of things that collision shops see,
04:07 and technology, we're lucky enough to have those guys
04:11 still come in the door and trying to sell us
04:12 on that end of our business,
04:14 which is really nice and leads us into,
04:17 we're always looking at new cars
04:18 and the way they're put together,
04:19 and kind of like you, David,
04:21 how you tear them apart and see how they work.
04:22 - Yeah, that's kind of what I do.
04:24 - I don't think we've given the audience the context
04:26 if they don't know the name Ring Brothers,
04:28 which I think everybody here does at this point.
04:30 Just the level of spectacular cars
04:32 that you've built for so many years,
04:33 past Battle of the Builders, winner,
04:37 two-time Good Guys Street Machine of the Year,
04:39 what are some of the other awards
04:40 that you've pulled down to this point?
04:43 - I don't even remember.
04:44 - The design awards are always nice.
04:47 - Design awards, yeah, from General Motors.
04:48 - Those are always big.
04:49 And actually, that's another thing
04:51 the audience should understand,
04:52 is I think that's what you guys are known for,
04:53 is really distinct design cues on the cars.
04:57 The stuff that you come up with,
04:59 I know I had never seen on other cars
05:01 to the point of our early years
05:02 in judging Battle of the Builders here at the SEMA show.
05:04 So to me, that's your signature.
05:07 - Yeah, thanks.
05:08 People say you have a signature and you don't even know it.
05:10 You know what I mean?
05:11 It's like, well, you got a style,
05:12 and it's like, well, I don't, what do you mean?
05:14 You know, it's like, you just do what comes out of you,
05:16 and then for some reason,
05:18 - Somebody likes it. - people go,
05:19 "I know that's your car."
05:20 - Well, it's interesting,
05:21 because a guy like Bobby Alloway,
05:23 you kind of know that you're gonna get a black car
05:25 with flames with a wicked stance.
05:27 And he sort of does that to a bunch of different cars,
05:30 and you're like, it's bitchin' every single time.
05:32 With you guys, it's different every single time,
05:34 but it's a signature look
05:35 that you can identify as a Ring Brothers car.
05:37 - We've definitely been blessed to have,
05:40 in our later years, the right clientele
05:42 to be able to afford what we're trying to do.
05:45 I mean, it just takes a lot of resources,
05:49 and we've got a great team of people.
05:51 I think we're up to 30 employees right now.
05:53 - That's incredible. - Yeah.
05:55 - And it's just, you gotta have the right guy.
05:58 It's a funny part is, I was talking to a guy last night,
06:01 and Mike and I have done the Chevelles,
06:04 and we've done the Mustangs and the Camaros,
06:06 and it's really refreshing.
06:08 Our last customer come in, and he says,
06:10 "I wanna build a car.
06:11 "We never met this guy before ever."
06:14 And I said, "Well, what do you wanna build?"
06:15 He goes, "What do you guys wanna build?"
06:17 - That's the customer you need.
06:18 - Yeah, yeah, that's amazing.
06:21 - That's kinda fun.
06:22 - I derailed a little bit,
06:23 because I wanted the audience to have an understanding
06:25 of who you are and what you do,
06:26 but I'm still really curious about the origin.
06:28 I know one of you was a Navy swimmer.
06:30 - Yeah, I was a rescue swimmer in the Navy, yep.
06:32 You know, we started out at home tearing things apart,
06:36 really, I mean, we were the kids,
06:38 two of, the last two of seven.
06:42 Nobody went to college.
06:43 - You were left, so the last two guys out of seven,
06:44 you left your own devices.
06:45 - Let me tell you something,
06:46 when you're the last two of seven in a two-bedroom house,
06:49 you get the tub last, that water's great.
06:51 (laughing)
06:54 So yeah, you know, we were in a town of 600,
06:57 and go to the payphone to try to call.
07:00 - Plain Wisconsin, is that right?
07:01 - Plain, plain.
07:02 - That's amazing, thank you.
07:04 - All 688 of us, that's what it was.
07:06 - Yeah, it was 688.
07:08 - When your own family is an actual percentage point
07:10 of the population.
07:11 - Yeah, right.
07:12 We had seven, believe it or not, in our family,
07:15 and we were probably the smallest family in the town,
07:17 one of the smallest.
07:18 - There's one with 22 and no twins.
07:21 - Wow. - 22 children.
07:22 - Same mom and dad. - Oh my God.
07:23 - You got two things here.
07:25 You got a long winter and nothing else to do, right?
07:28 - That's right.
07:29 (laughing)
07:29 - Well, it became the cars for us, but yeah.
07:32 So yeah, we just started tearing things apart,
07:35 and I remember it was, we would go to the,
07:39 the dump was honestly probably two miles away,
07:43 and we'd walk to the dump and drag a lawnmower home.
07:46 - I know, we rode it home,
07:48 because when we got there, we were uphill.
07:50 - Yeah, we could sit on it.
07:51 (laughing)
07:52 - It looked like a little Fry Burger show
07:55 we should have had.
07:56 (laughing)
07:57 - Yeah, a little roadkill action.
07:59 - We'd go home, take the motor off,
08:01 put gas in it, - Get it to run.
08:02 - Start it up, it'd bounce around mom's yard
08:04 until she ran out of patience,
08:06 and then we'd have to shut it off.
08:06 - And then we figured out the shaft
08:07 is coming out of the bottom,
08:09 and we couldn't make anything out of it,
08:10 'cause we needed something.
08:11 - Something to side.
08:12 - Yeah, we weren't that smart, you know.
08:13 It's like, "No, how do we get it to go over here?"
08:16 No, I did make a helicopter out of one of them bottom shafts.
08:20 (laughing)
08:21 Gospel to my dad, I had an airplane propeller,
08:23 I was hell-bent, I was making this helicopter
08:25 all two by twos, had one of them fiberglass seats in it
08:28 with a lawnmower engine over to a pipe
08:30 that went up to this prop,
08:32 and I don't know if you know this,
08:34 but airplane propellers don't have any pick.
08:36 (laughing)
08:38 I'll never forget, I'm out there trying to start this thing,
08:41 and the prop's half spinning around,
08:43 and I stand up on the chair,
08:44 and I'm trying to get this thing to run,
08:45 and my neighbor walks out, he actually is my uncle,
08:48 and he says, "If that thing starts, you're dead."
08:51 (laughing)
08:53 That was the end of my helicopter.
08:55 - Wow, your aviation career ended
08:57 before it officially began?
08:59 - I had hand-drawn blueprints,
09:01 I mean, I had it nailed right down.
09:03 - Man, that is a great origin story.
09:05 How old were you when that, when you--
09:06 - I was pretty young, maybe 10, maybe.
09:08 - Okay, at least. - At least.
09:10 - I lived through that.
09:12 So yeah, we just started, mom worked, our dad was gone,
09:16 and Jim and I were home with mom raising us,
09:18 and she worked nights.
09:20 So we would just tear (beep) apart,
09:22 and paint cars in her house, like in the basement,
09:25 and she would come home so mad.
09:28 You're gonna blow the house up, 'cause we were painting,
09:30 and we're right next to the hot water heater,
09:33 and the flame going, and we'd literally,
09:35 we would be changing engines,
09:37 and we'd drill a hole through her floor joists,
09:41 a crowbar through there with a come-along,
09:43 and Jim's like, "Better I can't hold it any longer,"
09:46 and I'm down in the engine bay,
09:47 trying to use my feet to get it into the things.
09:50 - Speaking of hot water heaters, I had a '55 Chevy,
09:53 I would think I was maybe 14, 13 years old,
09:55 it was a six-cylinder, three in the tree,
09:58 and I was sitting on a five-gallon pail,
10:01 gonna pull it into mom's garage
10:02 to start tearing into it, right?
10:05 And somehow the pail fell over, and I fell backwards,
10:07 and the car went all the way down,
10:09 so I got two stall garages a long way,
10:11 went down, hit the hot water heater,
10:14 dead center, and just rushed out.
10:17 - I mean, it was gone.
10:18 - And needless to say,
10:20 we didn't have hot water for days after that.
10:23 - Genius.
10:24 - Well, we never had hot water anyway.
10:27 By the time we literally got to the top
10:29 with the seven kids,
10:30 mom would be coming in with a boiling pot of water.
10:33 "Look out!"
10:34 She would say, "Move your legs!"
10:38 So anyway, off the thing,
10:40 but we would paint cars and work on people's cars
10:43 when we were very young, long before we could drive.
10:46 And then, after that, I went in the Navy,
10:50 and while I was in the Navy, I bought this GTO,
10:54 and I was so proud of this '69 convertible.
10:57 - You weren't proud of it.
10:58 - I came home on leave, and I go down the basin,
11:01 "Where's my car?"
11:02 I sold it.
11:03 "Well, where's my money?"
11:04 I spent it.
11:05 (laughing)
11:07 So I used to have a '69 GTO convertible.
11:10 - I did you a favor.
11:11 (laughing)
11:13 - You didn't like it?
11:14 - I just, I didn't figure you needed it.
11:16 (laughing)
11:18 - You needed it more?
11:19 - Yeah.
11:20 - Sorry.
11:21 How long were you in the service?
11:22 This is like a second career for you.
11:24 - Yeah, I was only in four and a half years.
11:26 - Okay, and did you go off and do another job as well
11:29 before you guys came together on the business?
11:31 - Actually, I was working construction.
11:33 I was a crane operator,
11:34 and then I newly married,
11:37 moved to Denver, Colorado with my new wife,
11:40 and my sister called me and said,
11:44 we have a, it was an environmental company,
11:47 what's called SOS International.
11:49 They did fire restoration and asbestos and all that.
11:51 Asked me if I wanted to move to Chicago
11:53 to run some projects, be a project manager for them.
11:57 So I ended up moving my new wife and myself to Chicago,
12:01 and I hated Chicago.
12:04 I just, I lived in Schaumburg.
12:05 I had to go downtown every day.
12:06 It was just, and we're used to living in a town
12:10 of 600 people, so I've never seen that many people
12:13 in my life.
12:14 So anyway, I was, it was probably, I don't know,
12:17 a year into that, and I was going through the paper
12:19 in Chicago, and I found a '69 Camaro Indy Pace car for sale.
12:23 It was a big block car, automatic,
12:25 and I said to my wife, I had no money,
12:28 and I said, I'm gonna go down to the bank
12:30 down the corner here in Schaumburg
12:31 and see if they'll borrow me $5,000
12:33 so I can buy this car.
12:34 She's like, yeah, good luck.
12:36 - And the car was 5,000, and he borrowed 5,000.
12:39 (laughing)
12:40 - So that's how much money he had.
12:42 - I did, I went down and sat with this guy.
12:44 I don't know why he gave me money.
12:46 He borrowed me the money, so I went and bought that car,
12:48 drove it home, you know, back to Plains,
12:51 where we grew up.
12:51 - Mom's basement.
12:52 - Right back in Mom's basement again,
12:54 and every single weekend, I drive home from Chicago
12:56 and work on that car.
12:57 Well, I finally got it done.
12:59 - Paint booth outside.
13:01 - Yeah, I made my own paint booth and everything,
13:03 and I actually sold it and made a bunch of money on the car,
13:07 and that's really what I started a business.
13:08 I looked at my wife, I says, you know,
13:10 this is what I wanna do.
13:10 I wanna stay back here, so me and a buddy of mine
13:14 started a business together.
13:15 We were doing, you know, just about anything we could do,
13:19 from crash work to some restoration stuff,
13:22 and I'll never forget, my wife would come home
13:24 at the end of the week, and I'd come home,
13:26 and she'd say, how'd we do this week?
13:28 And I'd say, oh, about 800 bucks,
13:30 and she goes, well, that's not too bad,
13:32 and I said, no, that's how much we owe.
13:33 (laughing)
13:36 So, that didn't last too long,
13:40 but we did do some pretty special cars back in that time.
13:43 We did the winningest 289 Cobra
13:44 for a guy by the name of George Stauffer up in Wisconsin.
13:48 A couple GT40s back then, just doing paint work on 'em,
13:51 not really none of the, but it was good,
13:54 and you know, that kinda was what bit me,
13:56 and I had bought this building.
13:59 It was an old car dealership.
14:00 I'll never forget it.
14:01 I think I paid $50,000 for it, which was like,
14:04 I thought it was just-- - All the money in the world.
14:05 - Yeah, it was just darn.
14:07 And a few years later, this company come in,
14:10 and they wanted to put a subway in there,
14:12 and I think I sold it for like 150,
14:14 so I was just banking it, right?
14:16 And built a brand new building down the road,
14:19 and then Mike come in and joined me,
14:20 and we had a, started out with a fast oil change,
14:25 you know, trying to make some extra money,
14:27 and had no idea what to call this fast oil change.
14:30 Well, when I was a kid, I had a peeing problem.
14:33 Like, we'd go down to the park, we'd play football,
14:36 and I could run 30 miles an hour
14:38 and piss my pants at the same time.
14:39 (laughing)
14:40 - Wow, so you and Brian have that in common?
14:42 - Yeah, I was gonna say, hey, we're not so different
14:45 after all.
14:45 - So I ended up getting a nickname called Speedy P,
14:48 'cause he's the only kid that could pee running wide open.
14:52 He didn't have to stop to start.
14:53 He was right in the middle of a sprint.
14:55 - Gospel truth, that was my nickname,
14:57 and I thought, what a great name for an oil change,
14:59 Speedy P's fast oil.
15:01 - And everybody would come in, Speedy P's,
15:03 I don't, Mike and Jim, what?
15:05 I go, you know.
15:06 (laughing)
15:08 - Comes back in the later years.
15:09 - Yeah, yeah.
15:11 - You know, I think the nature of you guys
15:14 really honestly being self-taught is pretty incredible.
15:17 You know, and nothing against anybody
15:19 that has a real pedigree in training
15:21 and all those other elements,
15:23 but the self-taught angle of your lives, to me,
15:26 makes the story even that much better.
15:28 - Yeah, I mean, it's just the way it was.
15:30 I mean, how better do you learn than screwing it up?
15:33 I mean, you don't learn if it goes good.
15:35 I mean, everything you learn
15:38 is 'cause how it hits you in the wallet.
15:41 - Yeah, sure.
15:42 - You know what I mean?
15:42 If you painted something, you thought,
15:43 "That was easy, that was easy money."
15:45 All of a sudden, you start doing a little better one,
15:47 and then it bites you, like, oh my God,
15:48 a guy had his hand on there for a week
15:50 that I didn't see before, you know,
15:52 and all of a sudden, it's growing out of the paint job.
15:55 I mean, things you learn only because
15:57 it affects you financially is how you learn.
16:00 - Yeah, pain and gain.
16:01 - You learn I'm never using that motor again.
16:03 I'm never using that thing again.
16:05 I'm never using this shock or that or this, you know.
16:09 One thing you learn over the years is what to use.
16:11 - What not to use.
16:12 - Yeah, absolutely.
16:13 You know, I'm curious, there's the self-taught thing,
16:16 but who has the design degree?
16:18 Because even down to, like,
16:19 the shirts you're wearing today,
16:20 you see, like, they've got their own Martini shirts
16:22 with their name on them.
16:24 You see your logo, which is really kind of unique
16:26 and memorable, that's obviously somebody
16:29 who's got a design background.
16:30 Who's doing that?
16:31 - Actually, the logo came from our nephew.
16:33 That's what he does, he does that kind of stuff.
16:37 He designed that when, you know,
16:39 Ring Brothers came about, not because we're Ring Brothers,
16:42 it was just because when we'd go to a show or go anywhere,
16:44 it was like, there's the Ring Brothers.
16:45 - There's the Ring Brothers, yeah, for sure.
16:46 - It kind of stuck, and so now that is our name,
16:51 but we got a lot of great guys at our shop.
16:54 I mean, very talented guys.
16:56 We use Gary Regal, who's done a lot of wonderful stuff
16:59 for us to, you know, render things and show us,
17:02 but, you know, it's definitely,
17:04 there's a lot of group effort, you know.
17:06 There's a story that we talk about all the time
17:08 that, you know, building these cars,
17:11 you get your mind set on a particular thing
17:14 that this is gonna happen, and then your brother's saying,
17:17 "No, the hell it is," and you're saying,
17:19 "Well, yeah, it is," and so then he goes in
17:21 and goes on vacation, and then I do it,
17:22 and then I go on vacation,
17:24 and he does the stuff he wants to do,
17:25 and so that's definitely, there's a lot of truth in that,
17:29 because there's a lot of times
17:30 you just completely disagree with each other.
17:33 - Well, and that's one of the other
17:35 fascinating parts of this, right?
17:36 We can look back, whether it's in hot rodding,
17:39 whether it's in auto racing,
17:41 like, there's a lot of brothers
17:43 that maybe try to work together,
17:45 and it ends up being real bad, right?
17:48 And so you guys have been through the good
17:49 and the bad times together for a long time,
17:51 and so you get to these creative impasses.
17:54 Is there a process, or is it just
17:56 we take some time with each other,
17:58 and then we sit down and figure it out?
17:59 Like, what is, how do you guys,
18:00 why do you guys work well together?
18:02 Because this is high-stakes poker, right?
18:03 These are big investments that are being made here.
18:05 - Yeah, I don't know, I think anybody that can sleep
18:08 with a guy that's named Speedy P when we were kids.
18:11 (laughing)
18:13 - That's a level of trust.
18:14 - So, you know, that brother thing
18:15 kinda just burnt into us.
18:17 I trust ya.
18:18 But no, it's been, we've just been blessed
18:22 to have really good customers,
18:24 be able to work together, work with our employees,
18:28 and, you know.
18:29 - It's hard, though, because there's definitely
18:33 those impasses where it comes to blows.
18:35 I mean, no kidding, we're screaming at each other.
18:38 I mean, once a year, it's like, knock down, drag out,
18:41 you buy me out, you know, I mean, we're just like losing.
18:44 (laughing)
18:45 And everybody's like, yeah, here we go again,
18:47 you know, have one of them.
18:47 But normally, no, it's all good,
18:50 it's just sometimes pressure of the business,
18:53 not really what is going on.
18:55 - And communication.
18:56 - Yeah, so, you know, we're both not that good.
19:00 We both have so much going, we're in different buildings,
19:02 we think we told somebody that we didn't,
19:04 and I don't know, so.
19:07 - Nature of being human.
19:07 - That part, right, but when it's a design thing,
19:11 really, you think we're kidding about when things get done?
19:14 I mean, I'll let him go, okay, you do it, but ain't staying.
19:18 I am not doing it, and I'll tell the guys
19:20 while they're doing it, don't finish it
19:22 because it's coming off.
19:24 I don't care what Jim says, and he does the same,
19:26 but when he goes, that's all buddy, we're getting that done,
19:30 we're doing what we wanted.
19:32 - So you come up with something like that,
19:33 have you ever had a customer come in and say,
19:36 Ixnay, no, this is wrong.
19:38 - We pretty much figure that out before it goes out the door.
19:41 Even if we were wrong, they gang up on you at the shop.
19:45 They'll take sides, there's a lot of times
19:47 there's three over here and three over here,
19:50 and we have a cookout and somebody wins.
19:53 But it's just, I don't know, somehow we figure it out.
19:57 There's a whole dumpster full of really bad ideas.
20:01 (laughing)
20:02 - But really well-fabricated.
20:03 (laughing)
20:04 - Horrible ideas.
20:05 - Well executed.
20:07 - There's a lot of times that renderings look so damn cool,
20:10 obviously because--
20:11 - We just went through that on our way out here
20:13 at that Charger.
20:14 He was hell-bent to put these stickers on the side.
20:17 And I'm like, there's no way.
20:19 - If the rendering, I guarantee you,
20:21 if we had showed you the renderings,
20:23 we all would have probably picked the same
20:26 design of graphics on the car.
20:28 It was awful.
20:31 - We laid it, we had the guy come in, he laid it all out,
20:35 and I'm like, there's no way.
20:36 And he was still riding that pony
20:38 out into the sunset with them.
20:41 And it didn't happen, but thank God.
20:45 But that is, it's just amazing how many
20:47 last-minute ditch decisions you make.
20:50 - Or screw-ups.
20:51 - Or screw-ups, yeah.
20:52 - Things that make you do something
20:53 that was never intended, and it ends up being cooler than,
20:57 there's a lot of times mistakes.
21:00 And how you gotta cover that.
21:01 - Happy accidents.
21:02 - Yeah, a lot of times.
21:04 - We did a car years ago, we built it for ourself,
21:07 it was a '65 Mustang convertible, it was widened out,
21:10 it had literally Walmart bowls in
21:13 for the buckets of the gauges,
21:15 and I mean, it was out there.
21:17 And I'll never forget it, we took it
21:19 to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, parked it
21:21 in the middle of the field, and I had more people go,
21:24 why the hell would you ruin a perfectly good car?
21:26 (laughing)
21:28 But it was so far beyond, now today,
21:30 you'd probably walk up to it and think it's probably okay.
21:34 But it was just funny.
21:35 - I remember at Carlisle, we'd never been there,
21:37 somebody said, oh, you need to go,
21:38 it's the old Ford or whatever.
21:40 And we had it out in the grass,
21:41 and that car was completely dirt, mud,
21:47 just war.
21:49 - From the amount of people.
21:50 - Just going around that car.
21:52 It was crazy, 'cause you'd look everywhere else,
21:54 grass, grass, grass, and it was like,
21:56 I said to Jim, look at that, it's like,
21:59 there's horses going around a merry-go-round.
22:02 - I was scared we would have to reseed that.
22:04 (laughing)
22:06 - Maybe they were carving a moat.
22:07 - Yeah.
22:08 (laughing)
22:09 - We couldn't afford to reseed it.
22:11 (laughing)
22:12 - You know, I think part of the process
22:14 that people would like to learn about
22:15 that are listening to this,
22:17 that people maybe don't understand is,
22:19 the idea of, like you said,
22:20 you just had a customer come in and say,
22:21 well, what do you want to build?
22:23 But that is obviously not the norm.
22:25 So what is the typical start,
22:27 how does one of your projects typically start?
22:29 Like, somebody picks up the phone,
22:31 you have a base of customers, you say,
22:33 hey, we might want to do this, would you be interested?
22:34 How does the process work?
22:36 - It's still a lot by email and, you know,
22:40 their budget range.
22:41 - Yeah.
22:42 - And that usually sorts them out pretty quick.
22:43 - Yeah, for sure.
22:44 - I mean, and honestly, that's why Jim and I
22:46 don't even take those calls,
22:47 'cause it's a lot of people telling you their dreams.
22:51 And they, you know, they'll say to Jim,
22:53 what can I get for 200?
22:54 And he'll say, a lot of cool parts.
22:57 You know what I mean?
22:58 And it's crazy money, but it's the truth.
23:00 Fuel systems, and you know, it's,
23:02 everybody thinks about the motor, the chassis.
23:04 - And it's done.
23:05 - It's the little things.
23:07 It's, you can spend 20 grand on ARP bolts.
23:10 You know what I mean?
23:11 It's like, who thinks of that?
23:12 To fuel lines and fittings and--
23:14 - We all know what paint costs.
23:16 - Yeah.
23:17 - I mean, yeah, you can have 15,000
23:20 in paint materials today on a vehicle.
23:22 - So budget is your natural filter for finding out
23:25 if that guy's your customer.
23:25 - Yeah, and then, it almost has to be.
23:27 You know, I don't know how else,
23:28 we haven't figured it out.
23:29 Trust me, we've worked a lot of years for nothing.
23:32 - Right.
23:33 - I mean--
23:34 - But it's like, you know in your heart,
23:36 you can't do it for what,
23:38 there's a lot of times in the beginning,
23:40 I'll be honest, you took the job 'cause you're like,
23:42 we got to, we gotta have this, and we'll figure it out.
23:45 But now, it's like, the hardest part
23:47 of this business is the money.
23:49 - Yeah.
23:50 - And if you can't be up front in the beginning
23:53 of what it's gonna take,
23:54 like, we won't give anybody a hard number.
23:57 But we can say--
23:58 - But they all want a ballpark.
23:59 - If you, if, they kinda say,
24:01 well, I want something like G-code,
24:02 or I want something like recoil.
24:04 And we can go back and say, you know,
24:05 that was 5,000 hours.
24:07 And our rate's, you know, 100 bucks an hour now.
24:09 So you can do the math, and the parts are, you know.
24:12 So this is about where you're gonna be with that car.
24:14 So, at least you're up front.
24:17 Somebody tells you they're gonna build a car for 250.
24:20 I mean, for us, it's mind-boggling.
24:21 You go to shops, you'll see 30 cars in there.
24:24 - Yeah.
24:25 - And you're like, there's four employees.
24:28 - Yeah, they don't get done.
24:29 - There's no way.
24:30 We couldn't do it in our lifetime,
24:32 what they have sitting there.
24:34 And then, all of a sudden, it's like,
24:35 well, you told the guy 80 bucks an hour.
24:37 Now your rate's 125 bucks an hour.
24:40 Which car are you gonna work on?
24:42 So those cars--
24:43 - It's stacked.
24:44 - And I think that's a little Rob Peter to pay Paul.
24:46 - Yeah.
24:47 - 'Cause we've had a lot of people want us to finish.
24:48 'Cause it's easy to start these things, hard to finish.
24:52 - Well, and one of the things you're revealing
24:54 that I think the audience would be interested in,
24:56 there's so many people who say,
24:57 I wanna start a hot rod shop.
24:59 And they don't understand, you can build a million dollar car
25:01 and I'm guessing that you can't feed your family
25:03 for a year off what you made off the thing.
25:05 - Exactly.
25:06 - And so, the question is, are you doing the cars
25:09 in order to create the image
25:10 to sell your aftermarket product line?
25:12 - I think it all goes together.
25:13 You know, that's why we still run a collision shop.
25:15 That's why we don't do oil changes, thank God,
25:18 'cause Feedy P's no longer.
25:20 (laughing)
25:21 You know, we've got our manufacturing shop now.
25:24 And we just kind of branched out enough
25:27 to make things click and make it work.
25:30 But yeah, it's a tough business.
25:30 - We don't put all our eggs in one.
25:32 - Although, you know, I gotta admit,
25:34 I think we are finally making money on the cars we build
25:37 because we just, we don't know how much gas
25:42 we got left in the tank.
25:43 I don't know how many's left.
25:45 But we're finally getting paid.
25:48 - I think that's a revelation
25:50 for a lot of people walking into a shop.
25:52 Look how long you've been doing it and at what level.
25:55 And your statement is,
25:56 I think we're finally making money on car builds.
25:58 - I mean, you look at Troy.
25:59 I mean, Troy's probably the leader of making money now.
26:02 And his quality is just insane, good friend.
26:05 Always admire what he does.
26:07 But yeah, you know, it's like you start to figure it out
26:11 and then you're old.
26:12 - Yeah.
26:13 (laughing)
26:15 Everything's the same but the reflection.
26:17 And it's just, you know, you wake up and you're old.
26:20 And you know, the price of these cars,
26:22 you know, I remember we got back early on.
26:25 You're like, can you imagine building a car for 200 grand?
26:28 And then it went to, can you imagine getting 400?
26:31 And then it went from, can you imagine getting 800?
26:33 And then, can you imagine getting two million?
26:36 We haven't had that yet.
26:37 (laughing)
26:38 We've got one coming.
26:39 But so yeah, and it's honestly, no disrespect,
26:46 but people have a lot of money it seems like.
26:48 And it's just like a happy meal.
26:49 They're happy for a couple days
26:51 and they wanna move on to something else.
26:52 You know, it's no different than buying a new boat
26:54 or your wife a giant ring or it's just,
26:58 and that's the world we live in.
27:00 But not to be, I kinda wanna go back to that shop thing.
27:03 Not to be like bashing on shops that have that.
27:06 - Oh sure.
27:07 - I really believe that people believe they can do it
27:11 for what they're telling people,
27:12 but they just don't know yet.
27:14 They just haven't been doing it long enough
27:16 because it's really good.
27:18 I mean, it's exciting to buy the chassis.
27:20 It's exciting to buy in the engines.
27:22 It's all exciting.
27:23 And then there's the big grind.
27:25 And then you think you're done.
27:26 And then there's another 1,000 hours or 500 hours
27:29 of tweaking and trying to make them drivable.
27:32 And then you're like, well I can't charge him for this
27:34 'cause it should have been this.
27:35 And that's where it eats your lunch.
27:38 - The end eats your lunch.
27:40 It's the final push that it's just--
27:43 - Nibbled to death by guppies, right?
27:44 - Oh yes.
27:45 - Again, nibbled to death by guppies.
27:46 - So my point is I know there's a lot of people
27:48 in the business and wanna start out.
27:51 And I genuinely believe they're all good people.
27:54 It's just they don't know what they don't know.
27:56 And that's where you gotta be careful.
27:59 And by bringing a bunch of cars in,
28:02 I don't think helps you.
28:03 It doesn't help, like us, if you walked in our shop,
28:06 they're all with, there's only three or four.
28:09 And that's all we have.
28:10 We don't have five in the background
28:11 or take people's money for later.
28:13 No, we need to focus on this.
28:16 I think that's one thing about us.
28:17 We won't do a Riddler car.
28:18 That's not who we are.
28:20 Plus, we would be bored if it took eight years.
28:23 I mean, two years for us is like a long time.
28:26 - And not to interrupt you, but the commitment,
28:30 it would suck all the shop's resources, right?
28:32 Like if that was the focus, it would basically,
28:35 to the exclusion of everything else, that would be it.
28:37 - Right.
28:38 - Okay.
28:38 - And it's just, to me, it's like so much,
28:41 as much money as these cars are,
28:43 there's so much stupid money, excuse me,
28:45 in the Riddler car that I just can't wrap my head about
28:49 looking underneath and going, oh yeah, I guess.
28:50 - I mean, I can appreciate them cars.
28:52 - I can appreciate the work,
28:53 but I have no interest in that.
28:55 I have no desire to have somebody count my stitches
28:58 in my seat to make sure.
29:00 - Have you been approached?
29:01 - Yeah, it's just, if you stacked up this with money.
29:06 - I think for the audience's sake, once again,
29:08 to explain what I think you're talking about
29:10 is that the Riddler Award is not necessarily
29:12 about style, stance, design.
29:14 It is literally counting stitches,
29:17 lining up every single bolt,
29:19 making sure every panel is flawless, the gaps.
29:22 And you're saying that you don't want to do work
29:25 to that level.
29:26 - I can't, my mind doesn't work.
29:28 And you know, in this business, I think you've got to,
29:30 no matter how much money you have or the other person,
29:34 it still relates the money in your own,
29:37 how much it means, like how much that money is to you, right?
29:40 You can't get numb to a million dollars.
29:43 I mean, you gotta have a conscience,
29:44 like that's a lot of fricking money.
29:46 And I think the second you do that in any business,
29:48 you immediately put yourself in a bad place
29:50 with that customer.
29:51 It doesn't matter what you're doing.
29:52 Like we, you know, my obviously background is drag racing
29:54 and the crew chiefs that don't really care
29:56 about how much the parts cost,
29:58 those guys will blow up everything in the trailer
30:00 and then look around and wonder what's going on.
30:01 - Give me more parts.
30:02 - Yeah, to your point, that's a great point
30:04 that you have to remain to some degree tied to the earth
30:07 financially to understand that this is,
30:08 I know this is a lot of money,
30:10 'cause it's a lot of money to me.
30:12 - Do the customers understand that too?
30:13 And do you have a hard time communicating,
30:15 especially that last bit that you're worried about?
30:17 - Yeah, it's funny with the customers.
30:19 The checks just fly in the door in the beginning
30:22 and them end ones, I'll tell you what.
30:24 (laughing)
30:25 - Well, I've heard that from a lot of other people.
30:27 - Well, it's because we all have a limit, right?
30:30 And honestly, it starts in the beginning
30:32 when you tell 'em, oh, around 500 and you're at 600,
30:35 you know, and then you're at 700 and it's like,
30:37 dude, that's a lot over 10%
30:41 what I was thinking maybe go over, so.
30:43 And we tell 'em our favorite saying,
30:45 calm down, calm down, if you can get over the dog,
30:48 you can get over the tail.
30:49 (laughing)
30:52 - That's a great line.
30:54 How much has the functionality in these cars improved
30:59 since, let's even call it the last 20 years?
31:02 I mean, the beauty is, I think,
31:04 always been there to a degree,
31:05 but the functionality of these cars
31:06 has to be exponentially better.
31:08 - That's such a good question because in the beginning,
31:10 you were building show cars, let's not (beep) it ourselves.
31:13 They drove like a truck.
31:14 - Yeah.
31:15 - You know what I mean?
31:16 It was like, and that's what we really strive for today
31:21 is we want it to be maybe a little quieter
31:26 and a little bit smoother every time.
31:28 I mean, we really try to have the door shut nice,
31:33 the stereo to work good.
31:35 It doesn't have to be super crazy horsepower.
31:39 We just want it to, damn it,
31:41 there's nothing more embarrassing than an owner calling you
31:45 on the interstate and his car's broke down.
31:48 - Coolant pouring out.
31:49 - The cool factor goes away really quick
31:52 if it doesn't run and drive good.
31:53 - Well, do you end up owning every car forever?
31:56 - You know, that's a great question.
31:58 - Isn't that the truth?
31:59 - As builders, you know anything funny?
32:01 We love to see the owner sell them.
32:03 - Yeah.
32:04 - You know, in the beginning, not so much,
32:05 I can honestly say that, not so much today,
32:08 but the early cars, because Jim would drive them
32:11 and go, man, it's just,
32:12 because the cars today are built so damn good.
32:16 It used to be in the old days, you could make them better.
32:19 - Yeah.
32:19 - Yeah, but one of the things I can tell you,
32:22 doing the stuff this long that we've done it,
32:24 we know what not to use.
32:26 We've been bit by that dog a couple times,
32:29 you know, and we're not going there.
32:30 I know that rack and pinion is horrible
32:32 and that power steering pump's going to scream at that rack
32:35 and we know not to do, but it's just,
32:37 it took, you know, we're not that smart.
32:40 You got to get hit in the head a lot to figure it out,
32:42 but now it's to the point where, you know,
32:45 we know what not to use.
32:46 I'll tell you this guy, you talk about being scared.
32:49 You build a guy, I don't know,
32:50 he probably had 650, 700 into this Mustang convertible
32:54 we did for him and a Coyote 10-speed automatic.
32:58 I drove the wheels off the thing.
33:00 He'd come down to pick his car up
33:02 and I mean, this guy built this car to drive.
33:04 Like he jumps in that thing,
33:06 the first time it's ever been on a maiden voyage,
33:08 takes it three and a half hours north to Wisconsin
33:11 up to his house and I didn't even sleep that night.
33:14 There ain't no way that guy's making it.
33:16 (laughing)
33:16 And he's got, I think he had the car
33:19 for like three and a half, four months.
33:21 He's got 18,000 miles on the car.
33:23 He never shuts it off.
33:25 - And he goes to the barn, throws the keys.
33:26 - He goes to the barn, throws the keys.
33:28 - Go bound on that thing.
33:29 I'm like, gravel roads and he's a big hunter.
33:34 - This is the gospel truth.
33:35 He come in and said, "The car's driving a little funny."
33:38 And I'm like, "Really, why?"
33:39 He goes, "I don't know, it just feels really awkward
33:42 'cause these cars have twin floor pans
33:44 and there's the upper and then we put belly pan
33:46 in the bottom to get rid of all the garbage."
33:48 But so he comes in and I'm like, "What the heck?"
33:51 So he leaves the top down out in the rain
33:54 and it fills the car full of water,
33:56 gets in between the upper and lower
33:58 and it's like a waterbed.
34:00 (laughing)
34:02 With wheels on it.
34:03 - With no baffles.
34:04 The early waterbeds.
34:06 We're like, so we drilled some holes in a strategic spot
34:10 and that thing leaked, I'll bet you, I ain't kidding you,
34:13 I bet you it was 55 gallons of water.
34:15 - Holy smoke.
34:16 - Oh my God.
34:18 - It drove a lot better when we got that.
34:20 - That's wild.
34:21 - That feeling, you said you stayed up all night
34:23 waiting for the phone to ring.
34:25 Was that the same feeling that might have existed
34:27 when you guys were kids doing side work for your friends?
34:29 Like when that guy, when your buddy--
34:31 - No, we didn't worry about our buddies.
34:32 - Okay, that was it, yeah.
34:34 - I'll tell you a story, I had this old mint Pontiac
34:38 that I bought and I loved that guy.
34:40 It was a pile of crap, but it was mint
34:42 and I loved it four-door and I had it out
34:45 in front of mom's house and it's sitting out there
34:47 and you know, I'm young, probably 16 years old
34:50 and up the street comes my brother
34:52 with his pile of Oldsmobile that he had
34:55 and he takes, he goes down the side,
34:57 takes both my door handles off, my mirror off.
34:59 - I did it nicely though.
35:01 - I mean, just--
35:02 - Good enough to just not crush it.
35:03 - He just shears the whole side of my,
35:04 and I seen this happen and I'll tell you that I'm so mad.
35:07 - Did you tell him to go get the helicopter starboard?
35:09 (laughing)
35:12 - But I am so mad at him and he was down
35:15 at the gas station downtown so I jumped in that car.
35:18 Obviously had to get in the passenger door
35:20 'cause the driver wouldn't open the door
35:22 and he had his car parked in that gas station.
35:24 I come down between the pumps and I T-boned him.
35:28 (laughing)
35:29 I pushed the driver and passenger of his car
35:33 into the other side and I got out of my car,
35:35 there's smoke running, I walked home.
35:37 I was just furious.
35:39 I just left it there.
35:40 You deal with it.
35:41 - You know, it's awesome to hear that you guys
35:43 build these spectacular cars but you've got
35:45 that kind of background.
35:46 So you know, you're busting my nuts a little bit
35:48 for like the roadkill stuff.
35:50 But you lived that too.
35:51 - That's why we love it.
35:53 - And you built the Winnebago.
35:55 - We had so, I'll tell you what,
35:56 you talk about a vehicle we had more fun in,
35:58 that thing was just a riot.
36:00 - It was a mini Winnie with a blown LS,
36:02 it was a 1000 horse blown LS and a Winnebago.
36:06 I remember we had her up to about 95 one time
36:08 and that thing's shaking like a (beep) tax.
36:12 (laughing)
36:14 And Carl Wagner, he's gone now but he said,
36:17 you know, Jesus, he said if one of them windows
36:19 come in on you, you know that little--
36:21 - We never even thought of that.
36:23 - Yeah, we didn't think of none of that.
36:24 - Yeah, blow the front of it.
36:26 - Old rubber, you know, 'cause that Winnebago
36:28 was one we got in Arizona, hail damage to hell.
36:32 - Yeah.
36:32 - Oh, it was horrible.
36:33 - All the rubber all dried out.
36:34 - Yeah, we didn't even think of that.
36:36 - We had so much fun.
36:37 - Piece of plywood coming out.
36:38 - You put two guys in the back of that thing
36:39 and you jump on it and the left front wheel
36:41 would come off the ground.
36:42 (laughing)
36:43 - Oh, the thing was genius.
36:44 Was that you guys' idea or was that a customer
36:46 who came in and was like--
36:47 - No, no, it was our--
36:48 - Well, we, I think Moose from Rad Ride called me,
36:52 said there's this really cool Winnebago
36:53 going through Bear Jacks and you guys should buy it.
36:55 And I'm like, what?
36:56 - We were going out there too.
36:57 - So, we weren't gonna be out there when it sold.
36:59 We figured it'd bring three grand or something.
37:03 I could've bought it at home for a thousand bucks.
37:06 We get out there and I'm like thinking,
37:08 God, who could we have bid on that?
37:09 So, we called Bob Johnson.
37:10 I said, Bob, that thing goes cheap, buy it.
37:12 We get out there and he goes,
37:15 you got your Winnebago, 10 grand.
37:17 - Whoa!
37:18 - I'm like, fuck!
37:19 - I started crying.
37:20 I literally was crying.
37:22 I'm like, how are we gonna get it home?
37:24 That's gonna be another 4,000.
37:26 I said, I'll drive it home.
37:27 Jim goes, are you fucking nuts?
37:29 It won't even drive.
37:30 There's no brakes in it.
37:31 (laughing)
37:33 318 and I said, let's just donate it
37:35 to a boys club or something.
37:36 Let's just--
37:37 - He's just a write off.
37:38 - Jim's like, no, we'll get it home and we'll have fun.
37:41 But I literally was out in there just sick.
37:43 I was just like, 10,000 dollars.
37:45 - Like, we could've bought that.
37:46 I'm not kidding you, a thousand bucks.
37:47 - Oh, sure.
37:48 - A hundred dollars.
37:49 - How did you get it home?
37:50 - We had to get up shipping it.
37:52 We had to get it.
37:53 - I'm a low boy.
37:54 - And then the only answer is, of course,
37:55 throw a blown head on a smoke grenade.
37:57 What else do you do with your $10,000?
37:59 - We haven't come this far to come this far.
38:01 (laughing)
38:02 - You can get over the dog, you can get over the tail.
38:04 (laughing)
38:06 - And unintentionally, to me, what that Winnebago did,
38:09 is it, and you guys didn't build it in this way,
38:12 but it became an image vehicle for you guys.
38:15 - Strangely enough.
38:16 - Well, yeah, but what it showed me
38:18 and I think everybody else, it's like,
38:20 these guys aren't stuffy.
38:21 They don't take themselves overly serious.
38:23 You know, and that happens out here, right?
38:26 I mean, you guys know, you're deeper in it than anybody,
38:28 but sometimes people get into the room
38:31 and they get breathed in their own fumes
38:32 and it's like, you know, and that Winnebago to me
38:35 is just a guy who loved following the project
38:37 and looking how ridiculous it was.
38:38 It's like, these freaking guys are cool.
38:40 Like, they're cool, they get it.
38:41 - I don't know about that, but it's--
38:42 - We did the Hot Rod Power Tour with that thing
38:44 and we had so much fun in that thing.
38:45 - That's a riot.
38:46 - Well, that's why we like what you do, David.
38:48 It's just because it is what's in all of us, right?
38:51 The stupider it can be, the better it is,
38:53 because that's what we really want to do,
38:56 to be stupid like that.
38:57 - Just because it's a bad idea doesn't mean
38:58 it ain't gonna be fun.
38:59 - We got an upcoming episode with a helicopter,
39:02 I'm telling you.
39:03 (laughing)
39:04 - I'll have to send you the design of mine.
39:05 (laughing)
39:07 I do still have a drawing of it.
39:11 - Oh, do you?
39:11 - Gospel Tour.
39:12 I still have a hand-drawn picture of that.
39:14 - We should get a, we need to get a copy of that.
39:16 - Straight out of Wiley Coyote's playbook.
39:17 (laughing)
39:19 So let's talk about the cars
39:20 that you guys have at the show this year.
39:22 And I think they, we were,
39:25 had our night at the museum last night walking around,
39:27 and they all hit us in different ways,
39:28 but I know we spent a lot of time with the Charger.
39:30 - Yeah, we looked at the Charger,
39:31 and we looked at the Rolls Royce, too,
39:33 and then all three of them,
39:34 I've got write-ups right now on hotrod.com.
39:36 - Awesome.
39:37 - But that black paint job on that Charger is just stellar.
39:42 - It's incredible.
39:43 - Yeah.
39:44 - Thanks.
39:45 That car is subtle.
39:46 You know, there's one thing I guarantee you
39:47 you didn't notice that we probably spent
39:49 way too much money on, was the grille.
39:52 If you've looked at it--
39:53 - It looks stock.
39:54 - It's a one-piece trim.
39:56 - That's stainless.
39:57 Obviously on a stock Charger, there's seven pieces.
39:59 There's these pieces, and then pieces,
40:01 and the center piece.
40:01 - But we machined that in one piece.
40:03 It was 560 pounds of aluminum to make that three-pound part.
40:08 - Wow.
40:09 - So I mean, the level, just,
40:10 'cause the car was on the jig,
40:12 and we're looking at it going,
40:13 man, that just, this looks cheap.
40:15 And you know, the surround is all plastic,
40:17 and they bolt 'em together,
40:18 and if you ever look at a Charger,
40:20 they're just always kind of wonky,
40:21 because they're just a bunch of pieces
40:23 bolted together, right?
40:24 So it's like, well, let's make a carbon surround.
40:26 So we scanned it, machined the mold,
40:30 and then machined the trim piece, so it fits.
40:33 But it looks box stock.
40:35 And it's so hard sometimes to do things
40:38 that you know nobody will notice except you.
40:40 But it just, Chargers were kind of cheap.
40:44 Mopars kind of were cheap
40:47 as far as the way they were made.
40:48 - Cool, but, so we just took something that small
40:52 that costs a ridiculous amount of money
40:54 that you have to get the customer to,
40:56 say, excuse me, to say, yeah.
40:57 - To buy into.
40:58 - To buy into, that honestly you wouldn't notice,
41:00 nobody would notice, because--
41:01 - Even, there's a lot of things like that on that car,
41:03 though, like if you noticed all of the rear,
41:06 the trim around the glass and the front trim.
41:08 That was all tigged together and finished
41:10 and went on in one piece.
41:11 There's no seams.
41:12 And you don't notice it, and you'd never pick it out,
41:14 but it just cleans it up, you don't have all that.
41:18 - The move in the wheelbase,
41:19 we moved the wheelbase two inches forward,
41:21 shortened the nose, and then took the fake scoops
41:23 that were in the doors and made functional ones
41:26 in the fender right there, you know, so.
41:28 You know, just what we wanted to retain was the Charger.
41:32 The interior, if you looked at it, it's very much Mopar.
41:36 I mean, you don't have to change a dash
41:37 just so you change a dash.
41:38 If they're cool--
41:39 - Amen.
41:40 (laughing)
41:41 - And the owner was adamant about that.
41:43 Like, he said, "I want inside to be a Charger."
41:45 Although the seats are out of a Honda.
41:47 - Right, but they were, you know.
41:49 But I mean, so many people will take a '58 Chevy
41:53 and Palladash and put it in something,
41:55 and you're like, "Ugh."
41:55 - Yeah, why?
41:56 - Why?
41:57 It's way cooler before.
41:59 - I seen a vehicle, I don't know if it was here or not,
42:02 it was a '72 K5 Blazer,
42:04 and it had the new Bronco headlights in it.
42:05 And I didn't know if it was a Ford, Chevy, what it was.
42:08 I mean, it was just-- - Right, what are you
42:08 looking at?
42:09 - Yeah, but just 'cause you can doesn't mean it's good.
42:12 - Yeah.
42:13 - And there's so much cool in them old cars
42:15 that you just don't mess with.
42:16 - Maybe put better gauges in them.
42:17 - Trust me, we've been there done that.
42:19 - Oh yeah, we had the pots and pans in them, like you said.
42:22 (laughing)
42:23 - Yeah.
42:24 - Would you do things initially, like,
42:26 just 'cause you could?
42:27 And then you'd sort of reel it in over the years?
42:29 - Yeah, I think we threw the line in the water
42:32 as deep as we could,
42:33 and we finally got it up by shore somewhere now.
42:36 (laughing)
42:38 I mean, the stuff--
42:39 - But I mean, if you look at our earlier cars,
42:40 we were probably bashed because we were putting scoops in.
42:44 Back when we started--
42:45 - You were throwing a lot out of them.
42:46 - Yeah, way too much.
42:47 - We were hammering them.
42:48 - But you know, the trend then was smooth.
42:51 Door handles gone, everything gone,
42:52 and we were like, that's cool.
42:54 Why are they covering the motors with all these panels?
42:58 We think the wires are cool.
43:00 So we were trying to show, I guess,
43:03 industrial feel back then for us,
43:06 to put scoops in fenders,
43:08 and everybody was cleaning them,
43:09 and we were like--
43:10 - Adding things to them.
43:11 - Yeah, it looked like a Christmas tree.
43:13 (laughing)
43:15 - It's interesting how you guys have then evolved the style,
43:18 or at least maybe dialed it back.
43:20 - Well, I guess what we figured out is,
43:22 what was cool was cool,
43:24 and it made it this long being cool.
43:28 So be careful with the front end of a car
43:30 and the back end of a car.
43:32 'Cause guys my age, we knew the cops.
43:36 You could look in the rear view mirror,
43:37 cop, hold your beer down, you know what I mean?
43:38 'Cause you knew every car coming at you and going away.
43:42 I can't tell that today, but growing up, we knew.
43:46 We knew that LTD, and we knew that,
43:48 you know what I mean, we knew what was coming.
43:50 - We talk about cops,
43:53 but things were different when we grew up.
43:54 But I remember in high school,
43:58 you never wanted to get caught drinking,
43:59 so I ended up going and buying a new washer jug for my car.
44:02 (laughing)
44:04 We would make vodka lemonade in it,
44:08 and then run the washer hose in it,
44:10 and everybody like, "Hit me!"
44:11 And throw the hose in the back seat and press the button.
44:14 - Allegedly.
44:15 - Yeah.
44:16 - Allegedly.
44:17 - Allegedly.
44:17 - Yeah, allegedly, sorry.
44:19 Forget where we're at sometimes.
44:20 - That's stunning, that is fantastic, it really is.
44:22 - You never got caught, but it got warm fast.
44:24 (laughing)
44:27 - And we go back to Speedy Pete.
44:28 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
44:29 - Certainly.
44:29 - I know.
44:30 - The Rolls-Royce is basically
44:34 what you guys just talked about,
44:35 where exterior-wise, it is virtually untouched.
44:40 - Virtually, yeah.
44:40 - And so, we talk about this process of maturing
44:43 and understanding editing and stuff like that.
44:46 You took your style, and it goes into the inside
44:49 of that car, and we were looking at it last night,
44:51 and it's like--
44:52 - It's beautiful.
44:53 - The interior is just, it's so cool,
44:55 and it's just like that touch modernized,
44:57 I know you guys reworked the floors in there
44:59 and everything, and it's like,
45:01 it's the best of both worlds for me,
45:02 because, again, that uninterrupted, iconic styling
45:04 of the exterior, but then you look inside,
45:06 and that's all you guys.
45:07 - Yeah, I mean, them cars, you literally had to be a jockey
45:09 to drive 'em, 'cause they had the dividing window,
45:12 and there's really, if you were above five foot,
45:15 you could not--
45:15 - There was no room.
45:16 - There was no room.
45:17 So, you end up taking a '57 Chevy seat,
45:20 taking the divider out, and yet,
45:22 putting the tables, everything back in,
45:24 and getting rid of all that, what I would call
45:26 Queen Anne wood that just made me tense looking at it,
45:30 right, it's like, I hate that,
45:31 going into somebody's house that's got all that.
45:34 - You felt like you were in a casket.
45:37 (laughing)
45:39 - So, yeah, it was like, that was our goal,
45:43 to get rid of that, but retain the dash,
45:45 and then, you know, Hydra Dip everything
45:48 that still brings the wood back,
45:50 that's a little different style, and--
45:52 - I don't know if you noticed the headliner,
45:54 it's got the new Starlight headliner.
45:55 - We looked up in it, yes.
45:57 - But, it was fun, and that car just gets it,
46:00 you know, it's an LT4 with a 10-speed automatic,
46:03 all independent front and rear suspension,
46:05 and it just works, and it's just a pleasure to drive,
46:08 and the reason we didn't tear into the body
46:11 is 'cause the guy loves that car,
46:13 I mean, he loves them cars, so why change it?
46:17 - Yeah, and you know, it's funny,
46:19 as people look at it, oh, it's a Rolls Royce,
46:20 them cars you can buy for nothing.
46:21 - Yeah, you really can.
46:23 - Yeah.
46:24 - They're tough cars, you know, I'll tell you
46:26 what was really weird about that car doing it,
46:28 it's not metric, it's not standard,
46:30 it's British standard, you can't find--
46:32 - Yeah, the Whitworth fasteners, yeah.
46:34 - And everything has got a flathead,
46:37 something that should have a crescent wrench on it
46:39 is a flathead screw that you're trying to get in,
46:42 they're very tough to work on,
46:43 I mean, that was a challenging car.
46:46 - Learning the latches, you know, they're still,
46:48 we probably should have changed them out,
46:50 but that's probably the only thing
46:51 we probably should have done.
46:53 - The latches are horrible, the doors shut,
46:56 they shut difficult, especially when you got
46:58 all new seals in them, and they're tight.
46:58 - Wait, to be clear, you're saying the British
47:00 is not the pinnacle of automotive?
47:02 (laughing)
47:05 - Stop the presses.
47:06 - And what was your reaction to the customer
47:09 bringing you a '61 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud?
47:12 - It was awesome.
47:13 - You know, this was a weird call,
47:14 'cause I happen, normally we're saying,
47:16 people send you, how did they find you?
47:19 I could hear Michelle out front,
47:20 I just happened to be in my wife's office,
47:22 and well, you gotta go online and fill it out,
47:25 and he goes, I could hear him,
47:26 I just wanna talk to somebody, so I took it.
47:28 - Oh, he was there in person?
47:29 - No, no, no, on the phone call.
47:30 So I took the phone call, and I'll never forget it,
47:33 'cause I've never had this happen,
47:34 he's like, yeah, I just sold my business,
47:36 and I need to get rid of money.
47:38 (laughing)
47:40 - You've come to the right place.
47:42 - Welcome home.
47:43 - Where the hell's Jim?
47:44 (laughing)
47:46 I had to say, take the phone and just go,
47:50 well, let me, hold on.
47:51 (laughing)
47:53 - Actually, we became great friends.
47:57 We actually flew out here in his jet.
47:59 - Not we, he did.
48:00 - He's a good guy.
48:03 - And potatoes, there's a lot of money in potatoes, I guess.
48:06 - Who knew?
48:07 - So one of the topics I wanna touch on with you guys,
48:10 and it just gets your generalized opinion on,
48:11 is the kind of, let's call it corporatization
48:15 of hot rodding, or the corporatization
48:17 of even the end of hot rodding that you're in.
48:20 We know what's been announced over the last couple of weeks
48:22 regarding the roaster shop guys,
48:23 they're becoming part of a large corporate entity.
48:26 Is that something, A, if the phone call ever came in,
48:29 you'd entertain the idea,
48:30 and B, what are your thoughts on that kind of move?
48:32 - Honestly, I, go ahead, Mike.
48:35 - No, I mean, the part is tough because we wanna retain,
48:40 I mean, we don't, we're not, yeah,
48:43 but we're not ones that, I mean,
48:44 I think people think we're bigger than what we are.
48:46 You know what I mean?
48:47 And so that, and, but, you know, someday,
48:51 Mike and Jim are gonna wanna, hopefully, park it,
48:55 'cause usually you just get war out buildings
48:57 and war out guys.
48:58 But you're pretty loyal to your employees
49:01 'cause they've been through a lot with you.
49:04 But all along, Jim and I's goal was to just build a brand.
49:08 We want somebody to look at that logo and say,
49:10 you know what, those are pretty good guys,
49:13 pretty honest what they say.
49:15 - Which is why people think you're bigger than you are,
49:17 because you've been successful in marketing that.
49:20 - I think, I think for me,
49:22 and I don't know if I speak for Mike,
49:24 but honestly, I think,
49:25 I think it would be nice to get to a point in your life,
49:29 especially the ages that we're getting,
49:31 to be able to take something off the table
49:33 and still do what we do.
49:35 You know what I mean?
49:36 - But I don't know if that's possible.
49:37 But yes, if that was the ultimate goal, of course.
49:40 - Well, that's kind of what the Roadster Shop did.
49:43 They, you know, they,
49:45 obviously they're still gonna be there,
49:47 they're still gonna run that place,
49:48 and, you know, they're great people,
49:49 but they don't have all the cards in the deck anymore.
49:52 - It's a burden.
49:53 - Yeah.
49:53 - The burden comes off,
49:54 but also a level of your own control comes off with it.
49:57 - Right.
49:57 - You know, that's the trade off.
49:58 - And that's correct, and that's okay,
49:59 but I still think being a part of that
50:01 and letting the Ring Brothers name survive
50:04 is a good thing, you know?
50:06 And what's the alternative, guys?
50:09 What is it?
50:10 Do you just one day wake up
50:11 and you turn that lock and go home?
50:13 - Well, the product line can live forever.
50:15 Maybe not the car building,
50:15 but the products definitely can.
50:17 - Yeah, absolutely.
50:18 - So it would have to be somebody that really cared.
50:21 I mean, 'cause like I said,
50:22 I remember in the beginning, Jim goes,
50:24 "Nobody's gonna care about our brand."
50:25 I go, "Jim, my heart, if we do right for people,
50:28 "and people can say those are good people,
50:31 "and that brand they do."
50:32 Like, we take back way too much stuff that we should,
50:35 but we just do.
50:36 We just like, we do the right thing.
50:37 - Yeah.
50:38 - You just do it, 'cause yeah, it sucks.
50:40 I mean, we know we get copied all the time.
50:43 We do all the R&D,
50:45 and then somebody's got it looking exact.
50:47 We even got patents,
50:49 and then we go to find,
50:49 we go to somebody just totally infringes,
50:52 and you're like, your attorney then tells you,
50:54 "You know, they can sue you back."
50:56 We're like, "Are you kidding me?"
50:58 - Insane. - "Why did I even?"
50:59 - Well, that's my point.
51:00 We've been told that a long time ago.
51:02 I tell you, don't patent anything.
51:04 I was told that a million times.
51:05 He said, "The problem with it is,
51:06 "is they're gonna steal it,
51:07 "and it's gonna cost you a pile of money fighting it,
51:10 "and you ain't gonna get nothing out of it anyway."
51:11 - That's where we really created a brand
51:14 that we wanna say, that's the Gucci.
51:17 If you can buy this one,
51:18 but if you want the Gucci, it's got the RB on it.
51:21 You gotta almost think that way,
51:22 and be proud of what you do.
51:24 - One thing about our stuff works.
51:26 We build it to use our stuff.
51:27 There's a lot of companies that have machine shops,
51:30 and do all that, and they build this stuff,
51:31 and they have no way.
51:32 Matter of fact, we get people that they bought it
51:35 from these other companies calling us for advice,
51:38 or how to make their stuff work.
51:40 It's bizarre.
51:42 You can't make this up.
51:43 But it's very frustrating,
51:45 and we spend all the time, money, R&D, everything,
51:48 and they can just--
51:49 - But that's where it'd be nice to have an influx,
51:51 where we could really do some R&D,
51:53 'cause we got a lot of ideas,
51:54 but it's just, it's a serious money to bring one hinge out.
51:57 - We need help in that department,
51:59 and we could do a lot of good things.
52:02 - So if you're listening.
52:03 - Yeah.
52:04 (laughing)
52:05 - And you've got money to get rid of.
52:06 - Yeah.
52:07 (laughing)
52:08 - Money to get rid of.
52:09 - Yeah.
52:10 Oh, you guys are awesome.
52:11 - You guys too.
52:12 It's been a great time.
52:13 - And I think just in my own curiosity, just to wrap up,
52:15 I think one of the questions I have for you
52:17 is one I think for every builder.
52:20 It's what's next?
52:22 You know, what are you guys seeing on the horizon?
52:24 Which way are things moving in terms of,
52:26 if not stylistically, if not preferred makes and models,
52:29 or are we always gonna live in the envelope
52:31 of classic Mustangs and classic Camaros
52:33 with a splash or something here or there?
52:35 - I think it's kind of exciting.
52:37 You know, Mike and I, more so Mike,
52:39 he's always wanted to get into European stuff.
52:41 He always wanted to put our twist on something
52:43 that wasn't made here.
52:45 I think this Aston Martin is a good opportunity
52:48 for us to show something different
52:50 besides a Camaro, a Chevelle, a Mustang.
52:52 That's kind of exciting.
52:54 There's a lot of cool European cars
52:56 that would be just a blast--
52:58 - Or Japanese.
52:58 - Or Japanese to put your twist on,
53:02 and I think that would be fun, you know?
53:04 - I think the industry's gonna change.
53:07 You know, as much as you said, David,
53:09 from when you first started judging
53:11 and when we were putting things on
53:13 to where it's gonna be numbing, I think,
53:17 in the next 10 years with the technology
53:20 and the printing and the scanning.
53:23 I mean, it's gonna really bring in a good designer now.
53:26 You know, to separate yourself tomorrow
53:29 is gonna be your designer.
53:31 It's not gonna be the car builder.
53:32 - Not the execution.
53:34 - Well, and the technology, and these kids are smart.
53:36 - You're still gonna have to be--
53:37 - They know all of the stuff.
53:37 - You're still gonna have to be a hot rodder, right?
53:39 You're still gotta be the hot rodder
53:41 'cause it's just a structure,
53:43 but I think the detail with the people,
53:47 with the money that really want to...
53:50 I think you're gonna see that bar just crazy.
53:54 I mean, if I could--
53:54 - It already kinda is.
53:56 - It is, but I really believe we're just like scratching.
54:00 I mean, I think in the next 10 years,
54:01 I mean, you look from year to year,
54:03 but I think you look from today in 10 years,
54:05 you're gonna go, we're not even in the same.
54:09 You're gonna see scratch-built cars,
54:10 and that's where it's gonna get scary
54:12 in that it's gonna be really hard for somebody
54:16 to say a scratch-built car is cool.
54:18 I mean, it's like the new Chevy truck.
54:20 - It doesn't bring context for you.
54:22 That's the thing.
54:23 Guys our age, like you were saying,
54:25 you saw in your rear view mirror,
54:26 you have a context of the car,
54:28 and when you're building one from scratch
54:29 that didn't exist before,
54:31 then you have to overcome that hurdle
54:33 of a guy's impression of it.
54:35 - And imagine this on a cycle,
54:36 'cause now we're talking about basically
54:38 rolling back 70 years to what custom car builders
54:41 were doing in the '50s when everybody was first figuring out
54:43 how to work with fiberglass, right?
54:45 And you look at some of this stuff now,
54:46 and I'm like, god, it's like it crawled out of the ocean,
54:49 but without that, we don't get to where we are now.
54:52 It's almost like a giant turnover of the whole thing.
54:54 - You know, you think of the technology
54:55 we were putting that truck we had here last year,
54:57 that Ennio truck.
54:59 - Oh my god, that thing was unbelievable.
55:00 - You know, we've never done anything like that before,
55:04 you know, incorporating all the Porsche pin drives,
55:06 and every single part of that truck was thought out,
55:10 and it was just, the amount of time and money
55:14 into that truck was mind-boggling.
55:15 - And who builds an open-wheel hot rod
55:18 at that level anymore?
55:20 Well, an open-wheel car that isn't intended
55:22 to be an open-wheel car.
55:23 - Yeah, I mean, like, technology,
55:25 you wanna talk real quick about,
55:26 even something we didn't know,
55:28 we machined the foam in the seats.
55:31 I didn't even know that was possible.
55:32 Like, how do you hold it while you're machining
55:35 the other side of it?
55:36 - I remember reading the PR on that one or the same thing.
55:38 - 'Cause we wanted the leather glued to it to be perfect,
55:41 and then we had to take a splash off the seats
55:44 we made out of carbon so that we could attach
55:46 that flimsy foam to that to then snap in.
55:49 But I mean, the leather, and it wasn't just
55:52 a flat piece of foam, it had grooves and really well done.
55:55 - I don't think people got that truck at all.
55:57 I really don't think they, I mean,
55:59 to see that in a picture is one thing,
56:01 but to walk around it, I think,
56:02 is a completely different experience.
56:03 - Yeah, it's radical.
56:04 - Yeah, but, a lot of technology.
56:06 - So with that, with what's coming,
56:08 that's gonna be the scary part, though, I think,
56:11 is it's like looking at a new Chevy truck design
56:14 before design, you go, man, I hate that.
56:16 And then three years going, why didn't I hate that?
56:18 I really like that.
56:19 - Yeah, you get used to it.
56:20 - And that's gonna be the catch
56:21 when you bring something out like that,
56:22 'cause you're right, they're not--
56:24 - The immediate reaction's gonna be this,
56:25 and then people will slowly kind of warm to it.
56:27 - Yeah, I mean, look at the pacer.
56:30 - Yeah, there you go, look at it now, look at it now.
56:33 - Look at me go.
56:34 - I have one more question as well.
56:36 - Yeah, we're wrapped, then we're wrapped.
56:37 - This is gonna be something I guarantee
56:38 nobody has asked you.
56:40 So having done some research on you guys
56:42 and watching some of your promotional videos
56:44 over the past couple days, I have to ask,
56:47 who is Sisyphus and who's the Rock?
56:49 - Sisyphus, you know, that's funny.
56:51 - Do you remember what I'm talking about?
56:52 There's a video that you guys have out there,
56:54 it's just like a three-minute teaser,
56:56 it's called Just Plain Last.
56:58 And you're on there and you're sort of
56:59 reading a poem about your successes,
57:01 and you go, I am Sisyphus, I am the Rock.
57:04 - That's, what?
57:06 - That was our brother-in-law did that.
57:08 He gave that to us for some sort of a gift or something,
57:11 and I don't know how it ended up on there.
57:12 - And then we made a video,
57:14 and then we actually tied it together.
57:15 But he wrote that for us just out of his heart,
57:18 and then we thought it was so cool what he wrote,
57:20 'cause we're from Plain.
57:21 You know, people think Plain as in Plains,
57:24 but it's 'cause we came from the town of Plain.
57:27 But you know that, but nobody else,
57:29 they always think, oh, they're savage guys.
57:30 But honestly, I still don't know who Sisyphus is.
57:33 - So Sisyphus is the guy who was sent--
57:35 - Greek mythology.
57:36 - In Greek mythology, he's sent to hell,
57:37 he pushes a rock up the hill,
57:39 and then it rolls back down on him.
57:41 - And he gets to the top of the hill again.
57:43 - I just thought it was a strange,
57:45 you know, I was like, hmm.
57:47 What are they saying about their job here?
57:49 - No, we definitely, the grade point average went up
57:53 when we left school.
57:54 I have no idea what you're talking about.
57:58 - What do you guys recorded the VO for?
58:01 - No, it was my brother-in-law.
58:02 - Oh, it was him?
58:03 - It was him.
58:04 - Oh, okay.
58:05 - He did it in his car.
58:05 - It all comes clear.
58:06 All right, you're forgiven.
58:07 - Yeah, thanks.
58:09 - Guys, we know how busy you are at this show
58:11 and what the importance level is of this show
58:13 to you and your business.
58:14 So thank you for taking an hour with us.
58:16 - Thank you for having us.
58:17 - To me, I've learned more about you in the last hour
58:18 than I ever could have dreamed to know.
58:21 - You guys ever need some helicopter plans,
58:23 you just give me a call.
58:24 - I gotta be honest, this is the most fun
58:26 we've ever had, probably, at SEMA.
58:28 - Oh yeah.
58:29 - Cool.
58:30 - Good, love to hear it.
58:30 - You guys are awesome.
58:31 - Great.
58:32 - The Ring Brothers, fantastic guests here.
58:33 It is the Hot Rod Pod, where it all began.
58:35 We continue to bust out episodes here at the SEMA Show.
58:38 More great guests coming.
58:39 Fellas, this has been an absolute blast.
58:41 Thank you again.
58:42 - Thank you.
58:43 - Thanks for having us.
58:44 - Thank you guys, very much.
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59:23 you